Instant Christianity

In Jesus Christ on the Cross there is refuge; there is safety; there is shelter; and all the power of sin upon our track cannot reach us when we have taken shelter under the Cross that atones for our sins.  A.C. Dixon

I was baptized many years ago when I was twelve years old, and I had an adolescent view of what a Christian should be and how I should act.  I had always been told that when you were baptized, your sins are washed away.  I believed that but the problem was when I sinned after I was baptized, I had this picture in my head that there was no way I could get back to God because of my sin.  So imagine a twelve year old thinking that I would never get to heaven.  It was like being told you had no hope of living. 

As I grew into adulthood I had this hopelessness that God never intended.  If we are to love God we have to believe that he wants us to live a sin free life.  The problem with life is that throughout our lifetime we will sin over and over again. Jesus was the only man who ever lived a completely sinless life.  He never had to go back to God the Father and repent of something He did in his life. The difference in us is that we are sinners and it is a necessary process for us to have to return time and again to Him to repent of the sins that we commit after our baptism.    

The following is an excerpt from a Billy Graham devotional that speaks of God’s great forgiveness. 

“There is a certain amount of sorrow involved in repentance that we don’t see much of today. That word means moaning and even groaning. I don’t mean that we have to have a great emotional experience, but I do believe that we need some tears of repentance. We need to be sorry for our sins, and to say, “Oh, God, I have sinned against You, and I’m sorry.” I am not an emotional person. I don’t know why, but I don’t cry easily. But of the few times I have cried in my life, some of them have been over sin that I committed many years ago.

The night I came to Christ, I didn’t have any tears. But later I went home and I looked out my window at the North Carolina sky and I cried over my sins. I said, “Oh, God, forgive me.” And the most wonderful peace swept over my soul. From that moment on, I’ve known that my sins were forgiven.” Billy Graham         

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, my attempts at living a Christian life are feeble at best.  Through Jesus Christ you saved me and I am redeemed.  Because of Jesus I can come to You on bended knees and ask for forgiveness.        

Scripture:  I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.  And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.  Romans 12:1-2

The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.  2 Peter 3:9